DIRECTOR'S CORNER
Happy Days! Ida and I just returned from the American Academy of Maxillofacial Prosthetics and the American College of Prostho-dontists meetings in Orlando, Fla. I am now the "Immediate Past President" of the AAMP, so we can ease back and relax for a while.
During the past year I conducted a survey of program directors regarding the Graduate Prostho-dontics applicant pool. Applicants have been decreasing for the past several years, and the ACP Advancement and Education Committee is attempting to determine the cause. A report of the results of the survey was given at the ACP Educators and Mentors Seminar in Orlando. The most striking finding of the survey, using extrapolated data, was that the actual applicant pool is approximately 50% of the applicant pool presented by the ADA survey of Advanced Education Programs. The ADA data reflects the total number of applicants for all programs, but does not take into account the fact that most applicants apply to more than one program. In our survey after elimination of duplicate appli-cants, the total number of 478 shrunk to 224.
This data indicates that there are in reality only four applicants for each position (162 positions available) and of these, only 1.5 are graduates of ADA accredited dental schools. Why is prostho-dontics so short of qualified applicants? The seminar discussion indicates the problem is multi-factorial, and includes the problem of student indebtedness, lack of active recruitment, prosthodontics is hard work and time consuming, students feel they are qualified to practice prosthodontics as general dentists, income of prosthodontists is low compared to other special-ties (Endo, Ortho, Oral Surgery), high tuition rates, three year program, lack of stipends, and on and on.
What can we do about it? Please, you tell me! The ACP has formed an Ad Hoc Committee to study the problem and propose some solutions. There are some solutions which are obvious, such as institute active recruitment programs through the dental school prosthododntic faculty and the ACP state sections. I am sure there are others, and I would appreciate receiving any suggestions you might have!
On a more joyous note, we wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy, Prosperous New Year.
MEET OUR NEW MEMBERS
Young Jun Lim comes to us from Seoul, Korea; is married and has one daughter. He received his undergraduate degree from Dankook University and his dental degree from the same school in 1992. He enjoys music and skiing. His future plans include teaching part time in a dental college and working in a private clinic.
Sudsukh Thongthammachat was born in Bangkok, Thailand and is single. She received her dental degree from Chulalongkorn University in 1995 and was in private practice for one year after graduating. She received an award for her research in 1992. Currently she is researching "The effect of tray selection material and tray storing time after impression making on dimensional accuracy of dental casts." She enjoys TV, reading, painting and singing. She plans to return to Thailand and teach at Srinakharinwirot University Dental School.
Manuel Reyes is from Manila, Philippines and is married with one child. He attended the University of the Philippines College of Dentistry and received his degree in 1991. The next five years he was in private practice. He enjoys soccer and plans to return to the University of the Philippines part time and private practice.
1998 MEETING
Saturday, February 21, 1998 is the date for our next meeting. We will meet again at Gibson's for their wonderful steaks, but for those who do not eat red meat there will be fish or chicken. Please send your reservations to Joan before February 15. We hope you are planning to attend this year's meeting to help Dr. Andres prepare for a Continuing Education program, sometime during 1998, to celebrate our 35th anniversary of the Annual Dinner Meeting of the John F. Johnston Society. Dr. Barco also needs your input for next year's meeting place. There undoubtedly will be other topics to discuss and if there is anything that you would like to present to the Executive Counsel, please let it be known to the Secretary--Suteera Hovijitra so it can be acted upon.
Enclosed you will find your 1998 dues and dinner reservation card as well as an envelope to return your dues and reservations along with your info sheet for the Newsletter. Remember if you don't tell us about yourselves, we don't have any news for the Newsletter; so keep those news items coming.
We all wish you and yours a wonderful holiday season and a healthy and happy New Year.Charles Goodacre presented seven lectures not only in California but ventured to Puebla, Mexico.
"Occlusion in Implant Dentistry" was the title of the presentation at the A.A. Periodontology given by Takeo Iwata. He will be presenting a table clinic in Chicago during the A.A. Restorative Dentistry Meeting (February 22, 1998) on "Esthetic Facebow."
"Surgical and Restorative Aspects of Endosseous Implants" was presented to the USA DENTAC at Fort Knox, Ky by Su T. Kang.
Ammar Louly presented "Prosthetic Treatment Made Easier" to the Greater Indianapolis Dental Implants Study Club.
Ray Maesaka reports that he is involved with In-Service training of clinical faculty on Modified Problem Based Learning approach to clinical teaching. He has had one 3-1/2 hour session and 15 one hour sessions with the faculty.
On November 7, Assad Mora presented "Restorative Microdentistry: A five-year perspective" to the American College of Prosthodontists
In May Michael Roda with Dr. Gary Foshay (Periodontist) presented at the Nobel Biocare Atlantic Team Day Lectures "Team Treatment Planning for Success."
Michael Wise presented "Occlusion and Implants" at Boston University and Brussels, Belgium; "Aiming for Excellence in Restorative Dentistry" at British Dental Association Annual Meeting; and "Practice Management" at the Confederation of Dental Employees in London.
"Rebasing and Relining Complete Dentures" was presented by Arnaldo Zuccari in Bologna, Italy.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Tanaka O, Maida T, Binon PP: New currents of the implant/abutment connection: Increasing resistance to Screw Loosening and Fracture. Quintessence Dental Implantology. Japan, June, 1997.
Fujimoto J: Diagnosis and Treatment of TMD, Quintessence, 1996, vol 15, no 5, p.63.
Hall BD, Munoz CA, Goodacre CJ, Yow W: Evaluation of some of the physical properties of resin-gypsum die stones (Abstract #1346): J Dental Res 1997;76(special issue: 0182).
Rueda LJ, Sy-Munoz JT, Naylor WP, Goodacre CJ, Swartz ML: The Effect of Using Custom or Stock Trays on the Accuracy of Gypsum Casts. Int J Prosthodont 1996;9:367-373.
Loh PL, Munoz CA, Goodacre CJ, Andres CJ, Moore BK: An Evaluation of Microwave Polymerized Resin Bases for Removable Partial Dentures. J Prosthodont 1996;5(4):259-265.
Goodacre, CJ, Brown DT, Roberts WE, Jeiroudi MT: Prosthodontic considerations when using implants for orthodontic anchorage.. J Prosthetic Dent 1997;77(2):162-170
W. Patrick Naylor has published 10 STEPS TO FINANCIAL SUCCESS: A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO SAVING AND INVESTING. The publisher is John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Get it at you local bookstore.
Michael Wise Textbook FAILURE IN THE RESTORED DENTITION--MANAGEMENT AND TREATMENT, first published in 1995 by Quintessence now published in German and Italian.
Arnaldo Zuccari Textbook RELINING AND REBASING IN PROSTHODONTICS: AN ATLAS-TEXTBOOK (in Italian).
NEWS FROM HERE AND THERE
Paul Binon recently joined the Editorial Review Board of the Journal of Prosthetic Dentistry and Prosthodontic Section Editor for the Implant Dentistry Journal.
Paul also states it's a real delight to be on the graduate research committee for Patrick Pedlar (Canada). His father, Larry and I spent many hours in the pros lab discussing the merits of cusp fossa wax ups, ceramic technique and the differences between American, Belgian and Canadian beer. The Canadians usually won with the likes of Pedlar, Schafner, Bowman and Jean ganging up on the few Yanks that endured and survived the pros program.
Paul further states--I had an opportunity to visit Dr. Aurilio Burse while I was in Brazil. He was a most gracious host during my visit. He is in private practice and becoming more active in the use of dental implants. He attended the two conferences that I presented before in Brazil. I very much enjoyed the wonderful food, the beautiful and very friendly people, the warm hospitality, the music, night life and Chipineas. Brazil was marvelous. Italy has also not lost any of its charm and my second tour was even more exciting than the first, I love the regional foods and had an opportunity to enjoy them in all the cities we drove through. I was fortunate to have a very knowledgeable guide and companion during our cross country excursion. The country side around Venice, Vicenza, Verona, the Dolomites, Turin, and the countless other small towns and villages was marvelous. I would definitely consider moving there if I knew just a little Italian.
Alex Bowman writes that he is presently working one day per week refining occlusion on completed Ortho cases. We "home school" our 12 year old son and 14 year old daughter on our little island. Our house is powered by the sun and wind and enjoys all of the modern conveniences including an electric frig/freezer and washing machine. I have sold my seaplane, which I had for 20 years, and intend to build an amphibious flying boat. Hope springs eternal!
Congratulations go to Fernando Campuzano and Aurora on the birth of their first granddaughter. She is very healthy and alert and the apple of their eyes. Fernando reports that he is thinking about taking in an associate with the anticipation of selling his practice.
Garry Ecker is keeping busy with a full time practice, clinical research into bruxism, postural factors and scuba diving; not to mention keeping up with Jake his 3 year old son and Elise his daughter, age 1-1/2 years.
Junhei Fujimoto is heavily involved in translating "The Contemporaly Fixed Prosthodontics" text into Japanese.
Takeo Iwata reports that all of his family is well and he really enjoyed playing golf at Malibu CC. He sponsored the 4th Memorial Golf Tournament. As a Rotarian, he has been able to add to his collection of flags from many countries. He keeps busy with his private practice.
Dick Jones is the current Treasurer of the ACP and is Chairman of the Indiana Dental Association Peer Review Committee.
Ron Jones has sold his home in Westmount (after 30 years) and moved to downtown Montreal. However, still maintains their country home 60 miles north of Montreal. He has retired from teaching at McGill and University of Montreal and is in the process of cutting down his practice now that he is 64 years old. His wife, Twink, is still nursing part time and very involved with volunteer work at the hospital. His son, David, has been with Microsoft in Redmond, Wash (with Bill Gates) for four years and is doing very well. Ron reports he enjoys fishing, hunting, skiing, golfing, tennis, computers and lately--oil painting. Things Ron and Twink like to do together: travel, golf, tennis, ski, fish and play bridge.
Su T. Kang has been with the U.S. Army Dental Corp for one year. He went to officer's Basic Course at San Antonio (Fort Sam Houston) and is now at Fort Knox, Ky. He plans to settle down near Chicago sometime in the not too distant future.
John Lund will be unable to be with us again this year, because once again the Women's Big 10 Swim Meet falls on the same dates as the Chicago Midwinter Meetings.
Ray Maesaka is involved with hemodialysis 3 times a week, 6 hours each time, in his home. He says travel is difficult and must be planned in advance and reservations made at hospitals for dialyzing while visiting far away places. We must be near cities large enough to have dialysis service. BUT--I feel great and look forward to more JFJ get-togethers.
Assad Mora is enjoying Santa Barbara and is busy developing a new microscope system better suited for dentistry.
W. Patrick Naylor recently moved to Scott AFB, Illinois. He is President of Naylor Financial Services, Inc. a fee-only invest-ment advisory firm founded in 1994.
Richard Persiani is involved in developing, equipping and staffing medical and dental clinics in Port-a-Prince, Haiti and Honduras, Central American. He recently traveled to Port-A-Prince to operate on and reconstruct children with CL/CLP and congenital abnormalities.
Scott H. Polizotto Achilles Surgery, associated with running Indy mini-marathon and I hope to be running again in December. He is enjoying second family and my three year old son-Dugan Scott-and three granddaughters.
Michael Roda is the 1997-98 President of the Canadian Academy of Restorative Dentistry and Prosthodontics.
Michael Wise recently signed a new lease on his practice and it is now being refurbished. He is due to lecture in 1997/98 in the UK, Frankfort, The Hague, Paris and South Africa. His eldest son Justin was married last year and Priscilla obtained her Master's degree in Health and Psychology--she is training and working in Psychotherapy.
1998 MEETING
Saturday, February 21, 1998 is the date for our next meeting. We will meet again at Gibson's for their wonderful steaks, but for those who do not eat red meat there will be fish or chicken. Please send your reservations to Joan before February 15. We hope you are planning to attend this year's meeting to help Dr. Andres prepare for a Continuing Education program, sometime during 1998, to celebrate our 35th anniversary of the Annual Dinner Meeting of the John F. Johnston Society. Dr. Barco also needs your input for next year's meeting place. There undoubtedly will be other topics to discuss and if there is anything that you would like to present to the Executive Counsel, please let it be known to the Secretary--Suteera Hovijitra so it can be acted upon.
Enclosed you will find your 1998 dues and dinner reservation card as well as an envelope to return your dues and reservations along with your info sheet for the Newsletter. Remember if you don't tell us about yourselves, we don't have any news for the Newsletter; so keep those news items coming.
We all wish you and yours a wonderful holiday season and a healthy and happy New Year.
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